The Disappearance
by WynterSky
Summary: When every adult in Konoha vanishes, Itachi and an overwhelmed substitute teacher are left to care for the children left behind while attempting to find the cause behind the disappearances. -same story, changed the plot a bit!-
1. Chapter 1

[A/N: So, I just watched episode 19 of Young Justice, 'Misplaced,' and was inspired to write about the same type of scenario occurring in Narutoverse. I fudged a couple of the ages so I could use the characters I wanted, but not by a whole lot. The fic is planned out in 10 or so short sections.]

I.

Itachi sighed as he leaned back against the wall of his bedroom. He had hardly slept at all the night before, and now the sun was beginning to glow through the paper wall panels. Soon, his father would rise to tend to his police work, and his mother would get up and send Sasuke off to the Ninja Academy.

And a painfully short time after that, Sasuke and Itachi would be the only ones left alive.

After a little while, birds began to sing outside, but there was still no sound from the master bedroom. That was rather odd, but perhaps they had decided to sleep in.

Trying to keep his mind off what he was going to do, Itachi began to clean his room; a completely pointless action, both because the room was already pristine and because he would no longer need it after today. Still, the familiar routine did help a little.

He was sorting his books again—by topic this week, he decided—when he heard small footsteps pattering down the hallway and all through the house.

Sasuke almost never got up on his own, Itachi thought with a frown, and there was still no sign of their parents being up and about. Perhaps his little brother had had a nightmare, but then wouldn't he have come to Itachi's room straightaway?

Now very curious as to what was going on, Itachi was about to open his bedroom door and go find Sasuke when the door was shoved open and Sasuke burst in, running straight into Itachi.

"You shouldn't run in the house, Otouto…" Itachi began, then paused, quickly kneeling next to Sasuke as he saw the tears in the child's wide dark eyes. "Sasuke-chan, what's wrong?"

Sasuke sniffled, putting his arms around Itachi's neck and burying his face in his brother's shirt. "I felt something funny and I woke up and then I went to see Mama…"

The words were a little indistinct, and Itachi gently loosened Sasuke's grip on him so that he wasn't mumbling into the fabric of his shirt. "What happened, Sasuke-chan?" he asked, now genuinely concerned.

"Mama wasn't there!" Sasuke burst out, starting to cry in earnest. "And neither was Papa and I went to look for them and I still couldn't find them and I thought you would be gone too and—"

Itachi hugged his brother tightly, gently stroking his soft, fluffy hair. "It'll be okay," he whispered as Sasuke continued to sob. "It'll be okay. We'll find them."

Sasuke stopped crying long enough to look up into his brother's eyes. "Promise?" he asked thickly, with a choked little hiccup.

"Promise."

Itachi was, without question, the worst person in the world, he decided as he looked down at Sasuke's trusting face.

…

Itachi's promise to find their parents (for however brief a time) proved more difficult to keep than he had expected. He headed for the master bedroom first, Sasuke clinging tightly to one hand with both of his—his little brother clearly did not want to be separated from his currently and soon permanently only remaining family member.

Standing in the doorway of their parent's room, Itachi surveyed the interior before entering. There were no traces of any strange chakra signatures, nor was there any evidence of a struggle. "Was it like this when you went in the first time?" he asked Sasuke, who was now half-hiding behind him.

Sasuke nodded nervously, hanging back a bit as Itachi entered the room.

Not only were there no signs of a fight, Itachi realized, there was no sign that his parents had even risen. The bedcoverings were slightly rumpled but not tossed aside; rather bunched up as if there were still bodies under them. Kneeling by the futon, Itachi flipped the covers back. There was nothing underneath, but that hadn't been what he was looking for. He placed one hand on the futon—it was cold. Whatever had happened, it must have been an hour ago or more.

"Do you know where they are, Nii-san?" Sasuke asked hopefully as Itachi stood up.

Itachi wasn't sure how to reply. "I'm sure they must be around somewhere," he said finally. After all, their parents couldn't just have vanished into thin air, could they? "Let's go outside and look."

Sasuke was still clinging to Itachi as they went outside. It had been Itachi's intention to speak to the watchman at the compound gate, but it was clear at a glance that the man wasn't there. Itachi made a mental note to speak to the Hokage about that; the watchman should be busted down to genin for being so stupidly careless.

However, the watchman wasn't the only person gone. "Itachi-nii-san, where is everybody?" Sasuke whispered, looking fearfully up and down the silent street. Somewhere in the distance, an infant began to wail, and Itachi knew that something was desperately wrong.

…

Just in order to make sure, Itachi searched some of the houses before drawing his conclusion: every single adult in the Uchiha compound was gone.

"Nii-san, where are Mama and Papa?" Sasuke asked again. The child had quickly gotten tired of walking so Itachi was now carrying him.

Itachi wasn't sure how to reply. As he had gone through the compound he had acquired quite a group of followers, and saying that all of their parents were gone might start a panic.

There were some children around older than him, but only a few; due to the war, there had been a drop in births for several years preceding Itachi's arrival. Even those older than Itachi were deferring to him at the moment, both because he was the son of the clan head and because he seemed to know what he was doing.

"I'm not sure yet, Otouto," Itachi whispered in Sasuke's ear before turning to the gathered children. They stared back expectantly and he sighed. "Everyone, please listen to me," he began. "I promise I will find out what is going on, but first we need to make sure everyone is safe. How many of you left siblings at home?"

About a third of the children raised their hands. Another third seemed to be gathered in sibling groups, and the rest were probably only children.

"Go home and get them," Itachi ordered. "Get bottles and diaper bags for the babies if you can find them, then bring them to the main training hall. Who here has already made genin?"

There were only six or seven hands this time.

"You come with me to find any children who are still inside. Everyone else, head straight to the training hall."

Gently setting Sasuke on the ground, Itachi gave him a little nudge in the direction of the training hall after the other children, but Sasuke didn't move. "I won't go!" he said firmly.

"But Sasuke-chan, I have things I need to do…" Itachi explained.

"Then I'll come too!" Sasuke said, grabbing onto the hem of Itachi's shirt and refusing to let go. "Please don't leave me, Nii-san…"

Itachi moved to pry the little fingers loose, then stopped as Sasuke's lower lip began to tremble. He had never had much defense against his brother's tears. "All right," he sighed, "but you have to promise to do exactly what I tell you."

…

It took almost two hours before Itachi was satisfied that they had searched every inch of the Uchiha compound where a child might possibly be found. There were fifty-three children in all, counting himself and Sasuke. The training hall just barely had room for everyone.

There was still no respite to be had, since after all the children had been gathered they of course wanted to be fed. Itachi sent the little group of genin out to scrounge for whatever cereal, canned goods, and baby food they could find, with orders to distribute everything as evenly as possible. Thankfully, the training hall had a tap outside, otherwise it would have been a nightmare trying to get water to everyone.

Leading Sasuke over to a spot that hadn't been claimed by anyone yet, Itachi quietly sat down next to his brother. "Look, I know you want to stay with me," he began, "but I really need you to stay here with the others."

"But—" Sasuke started, and Itachi cut him off before he could turn on the waterworks again.

"It's a very important ninja mission," Itachi said firmly. "I need you to stay here and make sure everything goes okay while I go into town and find out what's going on. Can you do that?"

Sasuke still looked unhappy, but he nodded and did not cling to Itachi this time. Itachi patted his little brother's head affectionately. "Don't worry," he said. "I'll be back in no time."

Leaving the noisy training hall for the silence of the deserted compound, Itachi headed for the gate.

It was time to demand some answers from the Hokage.


	2. Chapter 2

II.

Itachi bounded up to the rooftops as soon as he was out of the compound, and reached the Hokage Tower in barely more than a minute. It was late morning now, so there should have been more activity in the city; Itachi tried to convince himself that the silence wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

When he reached the doors to the tower and found them locked, he decided he couldn't deny the truth any more. Barring some unique coincidence, the disappearances had not been isolated to the Uchiha compound.

Slipping in through a window, Itachi searched the tower just in case, but the building was completely deserted. It was a bit eerie—usually when Itachi was there it was bustling with couriers, plaintiffs, and the ubiquitous ANBU guards. Itachi's light footsteps were actually audible in the echoing hallway.

"Well," Itachi said finally, "there's no good to be done here." His voice hung tenuously in the stillness.

Itachi unlocked the doors as he left the tower; the larger building had much better facilities than the training hall where he had left the Uchiha children, perhaps he could bring them there. No sooner had he opened the doors than someone in a chuunin vest burst through them, bowling him over.

Itachi was a little embarrassed at his lack of reflexes, but he hadn't expected to run into anyone else. The other boy—a teenager five or six years older than Itachi—seemed just as surprised.

"Sorry about that," the boy said, helping Itachi to his feet. He had a wide scar crossing the bridge of his nose and a tousled brown ponytail. Itachi recognized him, but it took him a little while to produce a name.

"That's all right, Iruka-san," Itachi replied finally. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to speak to the Hokage," Iruka said quickly. "None of the other teachers are there, there's no one in the office, and dozens of students have already arrived. I know I shouldn't have left them there, but, well, what's happened to everyone?"

Itachi shrugged, slightly disheartened by this news even though he had been expecting something like it. "I don't know what's happened," he replied. "But there's no help to be had from the Hokage."

Iruka's eyes widened. "Is the Hokage gone as well?"

Itachi nodded. "As well as everyone else who works in that building. All of the adults in the Uchiha compound are gone, and I saw no one between there and here."

Iruka let out a low whistle. "This is a mess. What should I do? I'm just a substitute teacher—I was only supposed to be in charge of making sure no one killed anyone else during kunai practice!"

It seemed everyone was going to rely on him, Itachi realized. This was understandable; an elite ANBU agent automatically commanded a great deal of respect, and he was probably one of the highest-ranking shinobi left in the village. However, he really didn't have many answers at the moment. He wished Shisui were here. If he had known this was going to happen…

Iruka was still staring at him expectantly as they descended the steps, so Itachi knew he had to reply. "I'll help you as much as I can," he said. "How many students were at the Academy when you left?"

"About forty," Iruka replied.

"And how many are enrolled?"

Iruka frowned in concentration. "Two hundred and seventy…eight?"

And that wasn't even counting any ninja children too young to enroll, those who had washed out or already graduated, or civilian children. This was going to be a logistic mess, wasn't it? "All right," Itachi sighed, "We can't possibly hold any classes, but we have to get all the children in one place. Do you have the keys to all the school facilities?"

"No, but it'll only take a few seconds to break into Mizuki's desk," Iruka replied with a mischievous smirk. "I used to do that sort of thing all the time when I was in the Academy. The main auditorium is probably big enough to hold at least most of them," Iruka continued, quickly guessing what Itachi was getting at, "and if not the cafeteria and the jutsu demonstration hall should hold the rest."

"Good," Itachi said, glad that Iruka was at least capable. "Go back and get to work on that. I'll bring the Uchiha children over."

…

Getting all the Uchiha children across the village was difficult but not as chaotic as Itachi had feared. Most of the older children had gone through disaster drills at the Academy, and while there were a few little panic attacks the younger ones on the whole behaved themselves. The eight infants were the most difficult to deal with; they were too young to understand anything more than that they were being taken to a strange place by people who were not their parents. They wouldn't stop crying, and although he felt very guilty about it Itachi eventually had to resort to calming genjutsu before the infants' stress could be passed on to any of the other children.

When they arrived at the Academy at almost ten, there were still only about forty children there, the number Iruka had said before.

"Where are the other students?" Itachi asked once he had gotten the children situated and stopped the arguments that instantly sprang up about who had the better spot.

"Probably still in their homes," Iruka replied. "These are the ones who had their parents out on missions; I doubt most of them have figured out what's going on. Everyone else likely stayed put once they realized their parents were gone."

"We have to find them," Itachi said quickly. He hated the thought of Sasuke alone in their house without supervision; children could do remarkably creative stupid things. Hopefully there hadn't been any fires set so far.

Iruka promptly ran out of the room, something Itachi thought very strange until the teacher returned with a rolled-up poster. "From the Citizenship classes," Iruka explained as he knelt on the floor and rolled out a large map of Konoha. "I might not be able to teach yet but at least I know where everything is."

Taking the purple marker Iruka offered him, Itachi surveyed the map. "How many genin do we have?" he began, but the door of the auditorium was thrown open with a bang before he could reply.

"Hey, what's going on here?" a girl shouted.

One of the babies began to cry again, and Itachi hurried over to the new arrivals. "Please keep your voice down, Hana-san," he said quickly. "We have a bit of a situation."

"No kidding," Hana said, shifting the toddler she was balancing on her hip as she surveyed the crowded auditorium. The Inuzuka were a small clan, so besides Hana and her little brother Kiba, who was practically glued to Hana's free hand, there were only thirteen other children, all under the age of ten. Several of them were barefoot, and a few looked like they had been roughhousing in the dirt—obviously they had gotten a bit rambunctious with the absence of the adults responsible for them. "Any idea what happened? I mean," Hana continued, her voice dropping to confidential levels, "there aren't any, you know, _bodies_."

"I'm working on it," Itachi replied. This was a nearly complete falsehood, but it would make everyone feel better if he appeared confident.

"Okay, good," Hana said, setting the toddler down and deftly shifting Kiba's grip to one of the toddler's hands. "Go find somewhere to sit, bratlings," she ordered, gently shooing the children in the direction of an unoccupied corner. "So, anything I can do to help?" she asked. Itachi did not reply right away, and Hana shrugged dismissively as she noticed that he was staring at the rather more chaotic squabbles for territory. "Don't worry, they'll work it out," she said calmly. "What do you need me to do?"

"We need to find all the other shinobi and civilian children and gather them here," Itachi explained, leading Hana over to the map and picking up the marker again. "They can't possibly all feed themselves, and if they don't have any supervision there could be a real disaster."

"Sounds like a plan," Hana said. "How many people do we have?"

"At the moment, nine people genin level or above, counting you. Iruka needs to stay here, though," Itachi said. "I know there are other genin but we'll have to enlist them as we go."

With a few marker strokes, the map was quickly divided into sectors and the searchers set off.

Konoha, thankfully, had a relatively high population density, but with only eight people searching Itachi still had a lot of ground to cover. He had one of the middle-class civilian districts, near the market. Hana was going to the area that contained the Hyuuga clan—Itachi had been sure that the Hyuuga children would not be pleased to have a member of their rival clan turn up at such a stressful time, so he had been glad when Hana arrived to help.

He had taken all the children he had found, seventeen so far, to a nearby playground for now. That way, they would be relatively occupied until he could take them all back to the Academy.

The next couple houses appeared to be empty, but Itachi could hear soft crying from the house after that. It sounded like a little girl, and Itachi carefully tried the door. It was locked, unfortunately—Itachi didn't want to frighten the child or worse injure a sleeping sibling by breaking a window, so he went around to the back. That door was locked as well, but did not look as difficult to break down, or quite so valuable as the fancier front entrance. It only took a few seconds for Itachi to kick the lock in and push the door open.

"Hello?" Itachi called. The crying stopped, and Itachi mounted the stairs to the second floor where the sound had been coming from. "Hello? I'm here to help."

There was quiet rustling from one of the rooms, then a small face framed by tousled pink hair peeked out. "Ninja-san?" the little girl said nervously. "Do you know where Tou-chan and Kaa-chan are?"

"We're going to find them," Itachi said, the half-truth coming quite glibly now that he had said it so many times. "Can you come with me?"

The little girl nodded, then ducked back into the room. Itachi looked through the doorway as she trotted over to a toy chest and rummaged through it before coming up with a scruffy stuffed cat with fur the color of her hair. Itachi noticed that she was limping a bit and knelt down next to her as she returned to his side.

"Did you hurt yourself?" he asked, inspecting her bare feet and realizing that one little ankle was swollen.

"I went to get a glass of water and then I tripped on the stairs," the little girl explained.

Itachi gently picked her up before heading out of the house. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Sakura," the girl answered, clutching her toy tightly to her chest.


	3. Chapter 3

[A/N: How big of a town _is_ Konoha, anyway? It doesn't look all that big, but I'm basically guessing on the population numbers here...]

III.

When all of the children that Itachi and the other searchers had found were brought back to the Academy, they numbered almost seven hundred. Of these, most were under the age of fourteen, and most older than that were civilian children. Most of the genin who had graduated last year from the Academy had advanced enough to have gone on missions with their mentors, and Itachi had no way to contact them as of yet.

Iruka had recorded the essential information about all the children, and reported his findings to Itachi. "There is no one age eighteen or over left in the village," he said. "Close thing, that: I'm seventeen and eight months."

Itachi was glad that Iruka had been spared—while he knew that Iruka was relying on him for guidance, it was good to have an assistant. The older boy also knew much more about children than Itachi did. Despite Itachi's affection for his younger brother, he was quite overwhelmed by such a huge number of children. Currently, he and Iruka had retreated from the cacophony of the auditorium to the quiet of one of the abandoned offices to discuss the situation. Since the auditorium was also used for community meeting or addresses from the Hokage, it was large enough to fit all the children, but just barely. It was a suitable stopgap for now, but they would have to find better facilities by nightfall or none of the children would be able to sleep.

"Out of all the children, there are forty academy graduates, out of whom seventeen are full genin. There are, as you know, two hundred and…actually it's seventy-six…children enrolled in the Academy. The rest are either too young or have no shinobi capabilities."

Itachi nodded to show that he had heard as he processed the information. The first order of business was to secure the city walls; even if they couldn't do much in the way of defense, they had to get guards on the walls to at least have some warning if intruders arrived. Konoha had been at peace for years, but if this had not been caused by something within the village it must have been done by outsiders.

"Who are the genin?" he asked.

"The seven you brought with you, four Hyuuga, one Nara, and five not affiliated with a clan."

"We have to set a watch on at least the gates," Itachi said. "If they take watches in turns…"

"You'd either have to have them take half-day turns or put them by themselves," Iruka pointed out. "Rookies couldn't handle that."

"Right, right," Itachi said. He must be tired if he had to have something to obvious explained to him. "Find the most advanced fourth-form students—I'm _sure_ you can find the grade books—and pair them up with the genin. I'll send Hana to help you, she's good at sorting things out." Inuzuka Tsume, the Inuzuka clan head, was a surprisingly active shinobi for her age and position, and due to her regular absences Hana held a great deal of responsibility in her clan.

"Roger that!" Iruka said with a mock salute, and headed for the file cabinet sitting in the side of the room.

When Itachi returned to the auditorium, wincing as he was hit by a practically tangible wave of sound, he couldn't find Hana in the building, even when he searched for her chakra signature. After a moment, he picked his way across the packed floor, trying not to step on any toys or little hands, until he reached an older girl who was reading a picture book to a group of approximately four- and five-year-olds. "Where is Hana-san?" he asked, having to raise his voice to be heard above the noise.

The girl paused from retelling _Kaguya Hime_ and looked up, but apparently didn't recognize him. She was a civilian, and not one of the ones from his sector. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Uchiha Itachi," Itachi said before repeating his question. "Where is Hana-san?"

"She, um, she went to the cafeteria," the girl replied, her eyes getting wide as she realized who she was speaking to.

"Thank you," Itachi said, heading as quickly as he could for the door and across the courtyard to the cafeteria. "Hana-san?" he called, pushing the cafeteria doors open.

"Back here!" Hana called from behind the counter. Itachi vaulted across tables and over the counter, landing in the kitchen area to see Hana looking into one of the gigantic refrigerators. "There isn't much in there," she said, closing the door with a thud as Itachi walked over to her. "I think there was a delivery due in a couple days, so everything is almost used up."

"How long will it last, do you think?" Itachi asked.

"A day, maybe two," Hana said. "And that's assuming—" the florescent lights overhead suddenly flickered then came slowly back to life "—the electricity lasts."

Itachi frowned. This was a new wrinkle. He didn't know much about Konoha's underground power plant; he could only hope that the children of the electric workers might have the knowledge required to keep Konoha running. "The Academy has emergency generators," he said, remembering this fact from his own Academy days. "If we have to, we can raid all the stores and keep the food here if electricity goes out in the town. Until then, though, we should probably leave the perishables where they are; if we have to transport them they'll only go bad faster."

"Good point," Hana said. "How should we go about feeding all the children? There's so many of them we wouldn't have a chance of getting them all in here at once."

Itachi started to reply, then paused as he heard the door to the cafeteria open again. He briefly met Hana's eyes, then they both ducked down behind the cafeteria counter to await the intruder's approach.

...

[A/N: I can't remember exactly how I did the math, but I'm pretty sure I had to age Iruka down a smidge so that things worked out the way I wanted them to.]


	4. Chapter 4

[A/N: By the way, I am now available as a beta reader, if anyone's interested!]

IV.

"…Aniki?"

Relaxing slightly at the familiar voice, Itachi put away the kunai he had instinctively pulled out and stood to lean over the counter. "Over here, Sasuke-chan."

Sasuke's face brightened as he darted over and bounced up to perch on the counter. "What are you doing in here, Nii-san?" he asked. "Are we going to have lunch soon?"

"Lunch?" Itachi repeated a bit blankly, before glancing at the clock placed high on the opposite wall and realizing that it was already twenty minutes after one. Where had all the time gone? "No, we aren't having lunch just yet," he said, although he knew that feeding the children couldn't be put off much longer. "What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for Naruto," Sasuke explained, holding out his arms expectantly. Itachi gently picked him up and set him down behind the counter. "I thought you would know where he was."

Itachi frowned. "Uzumaki Naruto?" Konoha's jinchuuriki being unaccounted for was a very bad sign.

"Yeah, he's in my class," Sasuke continued. "None of the other kids have seen him. I said I'd go look for him 'cause Shikamaru said he didn't want to bother and Kiba had to watch his baby cousin or something and Ino was trying to make Sakura feel better."

"I'll see what I can do," Itachi said. "By the way, Hana-san, Iruka-san needs your help with something. He's in one of the offices: I'll take you over there, actually. Otouto—"

"I want to come too!" Sasuke begged. "Please? The auditorium is too loud, I don't like it!"

"Very well then," Itachi sighed, taking Sasuke's proffered hand. Remembering how oppressive the auditorium had been, he could see why Sasuke would want to get away from it. Even Itachi had thought it a bit overwhelming, and Sasuke was much smaller than he was.

Iruka was practically ankle-deep in files by the time Itachi got back to the office with Hana and Sasuke in tow. "There you are," he said calmly, as if this was an everyday occurrence. "I'm sorting out the grades."

Hana raised an eyebrow at the mess. "Sorting?"

"Don't worry, I know where everything is!" Iruka protested. "There wasn't enough room on the table!"

Itachi interrupted before an argument could start. "Also, Iruka-san, I need Uzumaki Naruto's address."

"Naruto's?" Iruka repeated with a small frown. "Are you packing the little hellion back home already? I know he's a brat, but really…"

"The reverse, actually," Itachi replied. "No one here seems to know where he is. Will your…sorting scheme…let you find the address?"

"I don't need to," Iruka said. "He lives in the pension apartments near the warehouse district. I don't know the exact number, but it's the third building, in the one with the orange swirlies on the door."

"Thank you," Itachi said, a bit surprised. "I'll go look for him. Come along, Sasuke-chan."

…

It did not take long to find the apartment with the orange swirlies on the door, but when Itachi rang the bell there was no answer from inside. The pension apartments housed almost entirely elderly civilians or retired shinobi, so the inexperienced genin searching that section of the town might have understandably assumed there would be no children there and skipped over them entirely. This would have been easily remedied, but unfortunately, it seemed Naruto might not have stayed put.

"Wait here," Itachi said, leaving Sasuke on the front step as he carefully broke the lock on the window by the door. There didn't seem to be any wires or chakra triggers attached, but Itachi was still wary as he slipped inside.

From the looks of the living room, either there had been a fight involving eight S-rank shinobi, a hurricane had gone through it, or a six-year-old lived there all by himself. Judging by the general pattern of the mess, Itachi ruled out the fight and the hurricane. Naruto had not been kidnapped, at least not from his apartment.

"Is he in there?" Sasuke asked, peeking in through the window.

"It doesn't look like it," Itachi said, although he went quickly through the rest of the apartment just to make sure. Naruto seriously needed some lessons in organization and nutrition; Itachi was practically flooded by laundry when he opened the bedroom, and there was little in the kitchen besides instant ramen. Of course, Naruto really belonged under adult supervision, but there was little to be done about that now.

Climbing out through the window again, Itachi sealed it shut with chakra. Once this mess was over he could see about getting a new lock on, but for now finding Naruto was the higher priority.

"What do you know about Naruto?" Itachi asked Sasuke as they descended the steps again. He could follow the boy's chakra trail to some extent, but once they got onto the main streets it would be much harder to detect, so it would be a lot easier if he had some idea where he was going.

Sasuke shrugged. "He's _annoying,_" he said firmly but unhelpfully.

"Anything else?" Itachi prompted.

"Well, he keeps yelling about how he's going to be the Hokage. Oh, and ramen. 'Ramen ramen Hokage ramen Hokage ramen ramen ramen.' That's about what it's like. And he keeps bothering Sakura. And he glued Mizuki to his chair yesterday."

"Indeed," Itachi remarked, only half-listening by this point as he considered the information. While he didn't pay overmuch attention to the little jinchuuriki besides discreetly scaring off people who might have bad intentions toward the child, he did remember seeing Naruto at a little ramen stand once or twice. Perhaps it was habitual.

"Yeah, and he was supposed to have detention for a whole _week_ but I guess that's not going to happen now, is it?"

"No, probably not," Itachi agreed. "Here, this way," he continued, guiding Sasuke around a corner into the market district.

Ichiraku's Ramen was located at the tail end of the market district, and even though it was located near several much higher-end establishments it still did a rousing business, or rather it had before today when Ichiraku himself had been in residence.

This rousing business happened to include one Uzumaki Naruto, who, to Itachi's great relief, was currently sitting on one of the tall stools in front of the counter. There wasn't anyone else there, of course, so Itachi was a little confused as to why the boy was still hanging around.

Briefly letting go of Sasuke's hand now that the target was in sight, Itachi bounded up to a nearby telephone pole before dropping lightly down to the roof of the little ramen stand. "What are you doing here, Naruto-chan?" he asked mildly.

Naruto jumped, his arms pinwheeling for balance as he nearly fell off the stool. "I dunno," he said when he had finally recovered himself, "I didn't have anything else to do. Ichiraku-jii-san is awfully late. Where is everybody?"

Itachi was a little frustrated by this point, so he spoke more harshly than he might have otherwise. "So you've been sitting here for hours and it didn't even occur to you to _look_ for anybody?"

"Um…yeah?" Naruto replied finally. "It's not like that would do any good, you know."

Itachi sighed. "Yes, but it would have saved us the trouble of scouring the village for you. Come on, you need to come with us to the Academy."

Having apparently just noticed Sasuke, Naruto made a face at the other boy before hopping down off the stool. "I'm not going to the Academy today!" he said defiantly. "And you can't make me do Mizuki-sensei's stupid detention, either!"

"But—" Naruto started sprinting down the street before Itachi could finish the sentence, and Itachi had to perform a quick shunshin to get in front of Naruto and grab him by the arm. "There isn't any school today," Itachi said.

"Then why do I have to go to the Academy?" Naruto demanded, quite logically in fact.

"All the grown-ups are gone, so everyone has to come to the Academy until we can find them," Itachi explained.

"Everybody?" Naruto's sea-blue eyes went big, and his voice started to get a little trembly. "Even Ichiraku-jii-san and Hokage-jii-san?"

"Took you long enough to figure it out, dead-last," Sasuke muttered from behind them.

Itachi turned on him. "Otouto, you mustn't say things like that! Apologize to Naruto-chan!"

Sasuke looked hurt at being shouted at before glaring sulkily at the ground. "But—"

"Apologize!" Itachi snapped. Maybe Hana would let her younger brother run wild with their parents gone, but Itachi had no intention of doing the same. Naruto was unhappy enough at the news without Sasuke baiting him.

"Fine," Sasuke huffed. "I'm sorry you're a—" he caught Itachi's pointed look and quickly amended his sentence. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you, Otouto," Itachi said, bending over to pick up Naruto, who was still looking a bit distraught. "Naruto-chan, how about we stop at a candy store before we head back to the Academy?" he suggested, heading for a small establishment Shisui had made him very familiar with.

There was a horrified gasp from behind him, and Itachi turned to see Sasuke standing frozen in the middle of the street. "What is it, Otouto?" Itachi asked, still a little annoyed.

Sasuke sniffled a couple times, then burst into tears.

Itachi quickly set Naruto down and hurried over to his brother. "What's wrong, Sasuke-chan?" he asked, gently putting his hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"You like Naruto more than meeeee!" Sasuke wailed, and continued to sob.

Itachi stared at him, trying to figure out what demented line of childish reasoning had led to that conclusion. If this was what being a parent was like, maybe all the adults had just up and left, rather than having to put up with situations like this.

[A/N: Poor Sasuke, the stress is finally getting to him. As with all my fics, this one is getting longer, but that's okay, I thought it would happen.]


	5. Chapter 5

[A/N: I'm debating changing the premise and making the disappearances not limited to Konoha...that would let me bring in some non-Konoha characters, but it would also mean I'd have to figure out the ending again. Could be interesting though. What do you think?]

V.

"No, I don't like Naruto-chan more than you," Itachi said, sighing as he ran a hand through his bangs.

"Then why are you being nice to him and not me?" Sasuke pouted, still sniffling a bit.

The real reason was because Sasuke was actually being a bit of a brat right now, but Itachi wasn't about to risk saying that and setting off another flood. Besides, he doubted it was really Sasuke's fault; Sasuke didn't have Itachi's stamina or clinical view of the situation, so he was tired and stressed and the perceived favoritism had just been the last straw. "It's because Naruto just found out that his friends are missing, so I'm trying to make him feel better," Itachi explained. Sasuke still looked a little sulky, but it didn't seem like tears were imminent any longer. "You can come get some candy too," Itachi continued, picking Naruto up again.

"Oh, okay," Sasuke said happily, taking Itachi's free hand as nothing had happened.

Itachi made a mental note to read some childcare books once this mess was over and he actually had _time_ to read. While he loved Sasuke, he was coming to the realization that actually being responsible for a child (or several hundred) was a very different thing indeed to occasionally playing with his little brother. His ANBU training had of course included simulations of all sorts of emergencies, but he was woefully underprepared for something like this. Once ANBU was in operation again, Itachi would be sure to recommend that a training scenario for this type of situation be implemented at once.

They soon reached the candy store, and Itachi gladly set Naruto down; the blonde was surprisingly heavy for such a small thing.

Naruto pressed his face against the glass, his breath making little fogged-up spots. "How're we going to get in?" he asked, still fixated on the sweets inside. "There's nobody here."

"Don't worry, I can take care of that," Itachi said, taking out a senbon setting to work on the lock. He did feel guilty about what he was doing; this was practically looting. When (and if, he supposed, but he didn't like to think about that) the adults returned, he would make sure to pay for the damage to the lock as well as the candy they were about to take.

There was a sharp click as the tumblers fell into place, and Itachi pushed the door open, then grabbed Naruto by the collar before the boy could dash past him. "Not so fast!"

Still holding onto Naruto and blocking Sasuke's path into the store with his foot, Itachi grabbed two of the little plastic bags placed near the entrance. "Here," he said, handing one to each of the boys, "_One_ bag. And don't touch anything you're not taking."

Having given his instructions, he turned them loose in the store, sitting on the counter to wait for them to finish. While he knew he probably oughtn't, he helped himself to a stick of rock candy from one of the jars sitting by the cash register.

"Hey!" Itachi called after a couple minutes, "When I said one bag, I didn't mean that it wouldn't count if you ate it before it went in!"

Naruto guiltily dropped a handful of jelly beans into his bag, and Itachi smiled in satisfaction.

After about ten minutes, the boys had jammed each bag as full as they possibly could. Itachi weighed them and noted down how much he was going to owe the shop owner, not that he thought it would do much good. He sealed the lock with chakra after they left; he was sure that leaving it unlocked would be just asking for trouble. And thinking of trouble, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to send Sasuke and Naruto back into the auditorium with the candy, as all the other children would immediately want some.

"Itachi-kun."

Itachi gritted his teeth slightly, forcing himself not to let hostility show on his face as he turned to the newcomer. "Kabuto-san," he said evenly, tightening his grip on Naruto and Sasuke's hands just a bit. Itachi had never liked the slightly older medic, nor did he trust him overmuch. While he did not have any real reason other than the fact that Kabuto had had a few too many connections to Orochimaru before the snake Sannin's defection (which didn't mean much, honestly, a lot of people did), something about him just set Itachi off. Although most people wouldn't think it considering his personality, Itachi actually trusted his intuition a great deal. "What are you doing here?" he continued, as it looked like the genin wanted more than a simple greeting.

"Iruka-sensei said I could get some things from my house," Kabuto said. "Do you need any assistance?"

"No," Itachi said firmly. "I'm fine."

Kabuto shrugged and went on his way, and Itachi hurried back to the Academy grounds. Once back there, he left Naruto and Sasuke in the cafeteria (with strict orders to stay put and not eat _all_ the candy at once) before going to check on Iruka. It was getting late enough that they really had to do something about feeding everyone or risk losing control.

The office Iruka had acquisitioned was still buried in files, but they were actually in distinguishable piles this time, albeit rather shaky-looking ones. Itachi stepped carefully around them to reach the desk where Iruka was sitting—or rather, dozing, Itachi realized—half slumped over the desk with his head resting on his arms.

"Sensei?" Itachi began tentatively. Iruka likely needed the rest, but Itachi did need him at the moment.

Iruka roused enough to look blearily up at Itachi. "No, I'm _not_ going to—" he began, sounding annoyed, then cut himself off. "Oh, it's you, Itachi. Sorry about that," he continued, sitting up and covering a yawn, "I've been settling arguments ever since Hana and I got the guard set up. 'Why do I have to work with them?' 'How come I have to have the night shift?' '_I_ want to be with Hiroshi-kun!' Ugh, why did I ever think I wanted to be a teacher?"

"Because you like children?" Itachi suggested.

"That's the thing, I thought I did…" Iruka muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Before either of them could say anything more, there was a quiet knock on the door of the office.

"Should I get that?" Itachi asked.

"Sure, but if it's one of the genin, tell them to go away," Iruka replied as Itachi headed over to the door.

It wasn't one of the genin. It was an older civilian girl, with her hair in solid-looking buns at the back of her head. Itachi thought he recognized her, but he couldn't recall from where.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked. She was clearly having a little trouble with the idea of deferring to someone who wasn't even as tall as her yet, and kept looking past Itachi towards Iruka.

"I'm not sure…" Itachi trailed off, hoping she would supply a name. She didn't, so he had to ask. "What is your name?"

"Oh, sorry! I'm Bai Feng Huan. My parents own, um, owned, a restaurant…"

_We're saved,_ Itachi thought.


	6. Chapter 6

[A/N: I know I meant this to be short, but it's fun to explore all the different characters! I really might make this a larger-scope story.]

VI.

Not only had Bai Feng's parents owned a restaurant (which, Itachi realized, was where he remembered her from; the Huan Diner had been a favorite of his ANBU team), but the entire extended family participated there. This was quite a lot, Itachi discovered as the Huan clan trooped into the cafeteria. If they had been shinobi they would have been quite an influential force, but luckily for Konoha gourmands only a few of them had shown any ability or desire in that direction.

"So, what's on the menu?" Bai Feng asked, picking up a little girl with buns matching hers and setting her on the counter.

"Something simple," Itachi said, looking around for the inventory Hana had made of the supplies. "We need to feed everyone as soon as possible, and there isn't much left here." He finally found the clipboard under a couple of mixing bowls—how it had gotten there he had no clue—and handed it to here. "Hana wrote down what we have."

"Okay…" Bai Feng said, scanning the list. Itachi hoped she could read Hana's handwriting; the older girl was often in too much of a hurry for many things, writing neatly among them. "Looks like we can make sandwiches and carrot sticks. Tenten, want to help Auntie put together sandwiches?"

The little girl nodded eagerly, sliding over the counter and jumping down into the kitchen, and Itachi quickly got out of the way. He'd always let other people do the cooking for him, except for really simple things on missions: he should probably do something about that, but now was not the time.

Naruto and Sasuke watched the work in the kitchen from the far table they were sitting at. Itachi was a little surprised that they had gotten over their animosity, but perhaps they had just had too much sugar to really care.

"No more candy," Itachi announced, gently taking away the bags. "We're going to eat soon; I'll let you have these back later. Why don't you go play outside or something?"

There were a couple of protests, but Itachi held firm, and Sasuke and Naruto obediently went outside with Itachi following.

Outside, Hana was supervising a game of tag, in which Sasuke and Naruto quickly joined. Itachi leaned against the wall of the cafeteria to watch for a bit. A large number of the children were taking this whole situation in stride, maybe not even realizing how wrong it was. It was nice that they didn't worry, he supposed, but Itachi hated to think of what could have happened had, say, only the younger children been left. Without anyone to tell them what to do or remind them to take care of themselves, he doubted they would have lasted long.

As of yet, no one in Konoha had made any effort to leave the village, nor had there been any word from outside. Itachi knew they would have to do something about that soon; had the disappearances not been limited to Konoha, there would be several genin teams stranded outside, not to mention all the children from the nearby civilian towns.

The little pink-haired girl Itachi had rescued earlier—Sakura, he recalled—was sitting off to the sidelines as well, on one of the benches that bordered the auditorium. To Itachi's surprise, Kabuto was kneeling next to her, gently bandaging her injured ankle with gauze from a first-aid kit that lay open beside him. It seemed that perhaps the medic was a better sort than Itachi had originally assumed.

"Uchiha-san."

Itachi started at the sudden address, looking around for who had spoken. It took him a couple of seconds to realize that he had to look down. _I must be more tired than I thought,_ he mused as he tried to identify the brown-haired little boy who was looking up at him with a surprisingly serious expression. He was probably a Nara, but Itachi couldn't think of a first name. Most of his acquaintances were adults, which meant that he was a bit out of touch with them all gone. "That's me," he said finally, for lack of anything else to say. "But who are you?" he asked, sitting down so that he was more on the boy's level.

"Nara Shikamaru," the boy said, sitting down as well and thereby defeating the purpose. "I have a few questions," he continued, resting his chin in his hands and looking out at the clouds. "Sorry to trouble you. This whole thing is such a pain."

"And what might you want to know?" Itachi asked. It was a bit strange and not a little disconcerting to have such a small child behaving so grown-up, and Itachi wondered if that was what he had been like at that age. Shisui had always been after him to not act so 'weird', but Itachi had never seen what he was getting at.

"First," Shikamaru began, "What exactly has happened? According to my deductions, it must have been either an illness, an experimental seal or jutsu gone wrong, migration, enemy action, or some kind of freak coincidence. Have you come to any conclusions?"

"Illness and migration are ruled out," Itachi replied immediately, making a mental note to keep track of Shikamaru's progress in future. "There were no chakra trails or bodies left behind. An experiment is not ruled out, but it is unlikely; with my security clearance I should have known about it."

"So enemy action?"

"Or coincidence," Itachi reminded him. "There is no reason for anyone to attack Konoha, not now at least. What else did you want to ask?"

"When are we going to eat?" Shikamaru asked. Itachi raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Chouji wanted to know," Shikamaru clarified.

"I see," Itachi said. "Well, it should be soon, I hope." He would have to see about logistics before then, Itachi remembered. The cafeteria wasn't nearly spacious enough to hold all the children of Konoha. "I have to go speak to Iruka now," he said, standing up. "Aren't you going to play?"

Shikamaru quirked an eyebrow at him as if Itachi had just asked him to jump off the Hokage Mountain. "That would require getting up," he said in a tone that implied Itachi should have known this already.

"Oh. Right. I'll go see Iruka then," Itachi replied as he walked away. He didn't know what to make of the boy's attitude, but if Shikamaru's skills matched his intelligence as he grew up, he would be poised to become a formidable shinobi.

[A/N: Using my made-up family for Tenten again…]


	7. Chapter 7

[A/N: Going for the expansive version! You might notice that the synopsis has been changed. I might write the short version and put it on my LiveJournal, since it actually has a definitive end. I kind of know where this version goes, but don't have an outline yet. Also, sorry for taking so long to update! There's a poll on my profile that will be important to a future story, so please take a look, okay?]

VII.

Trying to get several hundred children of all ages through the cafeteria in an orderly fashion was not an activity Itachi wanted to do every day. Unfortunately, since there was no sign that any of the adults would be reappearing anytime soon, he probably would have to.

By the time the Huans had enough food put together to start handing it out, it was well after two, and the crowd was beginning to become mutinous. Finally, however, it was time to eat, and Itachi and his assistants started sending the hungry masses in. The oldest children got to help the toddlers through first (the genin had already been assigned to feeding the infants) and then the rest of the children went by age to get their food. It was a nice sorting system, but implementing it was harder than Itachi had thought. It was like herding cats, or Kakashi, or something.

Finally, however, everyone had a plate with a sandwich and some carrot sticks or apple slices, and Itachi could relax a bit. Unfortunately, the peanut butter had been getting a bit thin towards the end, so he had something that was more like a 'jelly with just enough peanut butter to be called a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich'. He didn't really mind, though, the Huans had done an amazing job considering the circumstances.

Heading out of the noisy cafeteria, Itachi spotted Sasuke sitting by himself on the benches around the auditorium and went over to sit next to him. There was still a little peanut butter smeared on Sasuke's face, and Itachi used his napkin to wipe it off before taking a neat bite of his own sandwich.

Sasuke scooted over closer to his brother, resting his thankfully now clean face against Itachi's shirt. Itachi patted his head gently. "How are you?" he asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "Okay, I guess. When are you going to find Mama and Papa?"

Itachi's next bite of the sandwich was rather hard to get down. _When_, Sasuke had said, not even bothering to think that there was any possibility that his adored older brother might not be able to do something. Sighing, Itachi thought back on the events of the day and how things had changed so quickly; only hours before he had been planning to murder—there was no other word for it, however nicely Danzou phrased things—several dozen of these children and now he was painstakingly making arrangements for their care. Even if the adults were to reappear now, Itachi didn't think he would be able to go through with the original plan by this point. At least Danzou wasn't here to make things worse.

Itachi started to take another bite of the now tasteless sandwich and remembered that Sasuke was still waiting for an answer. "I don't know, Sasuke," he said. "There are a lot of things I need to help with here, remember?"

"That's right," Sasuke replied, looking thoughtful. "Hey, where are we going to sleep tonight? Are we going to sleep at the school? Like a sleepover or something?"

Itachi shuddered inwardly at the thought. If just getting the children fed had been that much of a hassle, trying to get them bedded down would be madness. "I'll…have to talk to Iruka about that," he said finally. "Why don't you go play with your friends?" he suggested, motioning towards the group still playing tag. Akimichi Chouji was It at the moment, trying valiantly—and currently failing—to catch Inuzuka Kiba.

"Because I want to stay here with you," Sasuke protested, putting his arms around Itachi's waist.

Itachi appreciated the sentiment. However, at the moment he didn't have the time to spare for his little brother, even though he wanted to. Not only was there the issue of sleeping arrangements but the children would also have to be fed tomorrow, and the day after that, and so forth. Just one late lunch had all but exhausted the stocks left at the school, and they might have to look after the children for months or more.

"Hey!"

Itachi glanced up at the shout to see Naruto standing on the roof of the auditorium looking down at them. Sasuke looked up as well and promptly put his tongue out at the other boy. "Stop that, Sasuke," Itachi said quickly. "Naruto, get down from there!"

Naruto obliged by jumping off the twelve-foot roof. Itachi couldn't disentangle himself from Sasuke in time to catch him and the boy landed with a thump on the grass in front of them. He didn't move for a few seconds and Sasuke's eyes went wide as he tugged on Itachi's shirt. "Hey, is he okay?" he whispered. From this little show of worry, perhaps it was not all animosity between his brother and the jinchuuriki, although Itachi still wasn't sure what to make of it.

"He's had worse mishaps than that getting away from ANBU after one of his pranks," Itachi said as he stood up and walked over to the little blond, "so I expect so, but…"

At this point Naruto's eyes opened and he sprang up in an attempt to tackle Itachi, who merely stepped about a foot to the side and let the boy land in the grass again. "And just what do you think you were doing?" Itachi asked in his most awesomer-than-thou ANBU tone, grabbing Naruto's collar as he got up again.

"Looking for Ayame-nee-chan!" Naruto proclaimed, rubbing futilely at a grass stain on his orange shirt.

"Well, she _obviously_ wouldn't be up on the roof," Itachi said with forced calm. "She's probably inside the auditorium or in the cafeteria." He wasn't exactly sure who Ayame-nee-chan was, although he had a vague notion that Ichiraku had a daughter named Amiko or Ayame or some such , but that was where practically everyone was at the moment.

"Nuh-uh!" Naruto said, trying to pull his collar out of Itachi's grip and failing. "I looked, and she wasn't, so there!"

"Is Ayame-san missing?" Sasuke asked, walking over and grabbing onto Itachi's shirt again; it was going to be quite stretched out by the end of the day. "She helps out in the library sometimes. She's nice."

"Yeah, and she gives me _free ramen!_" Naruto added exuberantly. "Well, not in the library, but—"

"Who cares about ramen?" Sasuke retorted.

"Now, now," Itachi cut in before the two boys could get into an argument. "That's enough."

"_I _care about ramen, that's who!" Naruto yelled, and Itachi promptly promised himself that he would never have children. Ever.

"Yeah, well everybody _except _you—"

"That's. Enough." Itachi snapped, in a tone that could have S-rank missing-nin quaking in their toeless shoes. Here, it did nothing except make both boys glare at him briefly as they paused for breath. Itachi quickly filled the momentary silence in hopes of distracting them. "We were looking for Ayame-san, right?" he said, doing his best to smile encouragingly and forcing his grip on Naruto's collar to loosen slightly because strangling him really sounded too tempting right now. "Is that Ichiraku Ayame?"

"Yeah, and I've been looking _all_ over for her and she isn't there and she wasn't at Ichiraku's either even though I was waiting for her so I don't know where she is and I thought if I got someplace high up I could see farther but I didn't see her but then I did see you and I thought since you were the in charge person you could—"

"Yes. I see," Itachi said, finally putting his hand over Naruto's mouth so he could get a word in. "All right, you come with us and we'll see if Iruka knows anything, and if he can't tell us where she is we'll look for her. At ground level," he added as an afterthought, so Naruto wouldn't get any ideas.

…

Iruka was not in his temporary office when Itachi got there, Naruto and Sasuke in tow. Thankfully, the two boys had somewhat gotten over whatever their problem was—seriously, why couldn't they get along?— in order to find Ichiraku Ayame. Itachi knew he had to keep them focused, however, or they would quickly get back into bickering again.

"Let's go look for Iruka-sensei in the auditorium," Itachi suggested, pulling Naruto away from the desk before he could make an avalanche of the files heaped on it. The blond pouted a little but obediently followed, and Sasuke was still clinging to Itachi's shirt and didn't seem to have any intentions of detaching himself for the time being. This was nice in some respects, as Naruto was quite enough to keep track of, but did have the side effect of slowing Itachi down a little.

When they got to the auditorium, it seemed even louder than it had earlier, and shouting could be heard even through the doors. Itachi frowned a little as he pushed the door open, ready to shove the two children out of the way and spring into action if such was required.

[A/N: Nothing for angst like Naruto being his bratty self! I just realized that we haven't even gotten through the first day yet…I'll try to get things moving faster soon.]


	8. Chapter 8

[A/N: An update! It's an update! School's starting soon, which means fanfiction season.]

VIII:

Itachi's battle prowess was, thankfully, not required. To Itachi's shock, the source of the shouting was Iruka.

The reason for Iruka's shouting was a little less surprising. The young substitute teacher was currently hanging onto a Hyuuga and Uchiha genin and haranguing them while holding them apart at arm's length. Neither looked very happy about this but from the resigned expressions Iruka's tirade had clearly gone on for a while.

The rest of the auditorium was silent as the gathered children stared. The Uchiha and Hyuuga children—those who were old enough to care what clan they were in, anyway—were also engaged in bitterly glaring at each other and some seemed to be preparing for hostilities.

Iruka looked over as the door opened, then seemed to snap out of whatever it was and let go of the two boys with a final 'and behave yourselves!' before walking over to Itachi. "Um, sorry about that…" Iruka began.

"You probably had a good reason," Itachi said, remembering how hard it had been to resist doing something similar a few times. "What happened?"

"It started out with them arguing over the guard assignments, but then one of them brought up clan favoritism—"

"And that was that," Itachi finished.

"Yeah," Iruka said. "Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long, what with all the clans shoved together like this and everyone worried in the first place. We've got to do something about it, though—if we leave the kids like this all night no one will get any sleep for the arguing. Oh, there you are, Naruto," he added, taking notice of the two children Itachi had in tow. "I was wondering where you were."

"We're looking for Ayame-nee-chan!" Naruto announced with an unnecessary amount of volume. He didn't seem to have quite understood the concept of 'indoor voice' just yet.

"Ichiraku Ayame?" Iruka said, and Naruto nodded. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen her, and I don't remember putting her name in the list. I should know, too, considering I go to Ichiraku's all the time."

"Is something wrong?" someone else cut in from behind them.

"Oh, Kabuto-kun," Iruka said as he and Itachi turned to face the newcomer.

The medic was carrying Sakura, who was happily eating apple slices. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of Sasuke, and she waved down at him. Sasuke promptly ducked behind Itachi, and Naruto pouted.

Itachi sighed inwardly. Not only had he somehow ended up with the pair of on-and-off best friends and worst enemies (according to Mizuki's class notes), but now a pint-size love triangle was added to the mix!

"Is something wrong?" Kabuto asked, gently moving Sakura's hand so that her apple slice wasn't getting tangled in his hair.

"We're not sure yet," Iruka answered. "You've been helping out some, have you seen Ichiraku Ayame?"

"No, I haven't," Kabuto replied.

"That's not good," Iruka said. "Itachi, why don't you try her house again? Even if she's gone you can probably track her from there."

Itachi nodded, glad of the chance for some definite action. "Right. Naruto-chan, Otouto, you to stay here with Iruka-sensei until I get back."

"I'll go with you," Kabuto said quickly before Itachi could turn to go. Setting Sakura on the ground next to the boys, he patted her pink hair gently. "Who knows," he added as he and Itachi headed out of the Academy grounds, "a medic might come in handy."

"Maybe," Itachi said flatly. He could see Kabuto's point, and honestly the genin's actions during the day were beginning to change his opinion, but he still didn't really want Kabuto following him around. He just felt bad about it now.

…

Naruto's landmark-based directions were surprisingly accurate, and a few minutes later Itachi and Kabuto were standing in front of a neat little traditional house. A small placard next to the door had 'Ichiraku' written on it in flowing calligraphy, so clearly they had come to the right place.

Itachi strode briskly up to the door and knocked on the frame. He was sure that the sound should have been heard all through the house, but there was no answer. Closing his eyes in order to concentrate on the chakra eddying around them, he could detect a soft presence inside the house, the amount one would expect from a civilian. "She is inside," he said, "or at least someone is, and they may be injured as there is no reply."

Kabuto, thankfully, did not say anything like 'I told you so' as Itachi carefully broke the lock on the door, being careful to do as little damage as possible.

Ayame seemed to be located towards the back of the house, and once the door was open Itachi and Kabuto hurried in, Naruto trailing behind them.

"Here she is!" Kabuto called after a few moments, the three of them having split up in order to search the house.

Itachi quickly joined him, collecting Naruto from the kitchen on the way. Ayame was lying on the floor in what appeared to be a curio room of some kind, filled with bookcases and exotic knick-knacks. By her legs was an overturned stool, and a feather duster lay loosely in one hand.

"What's wrong with Ayame-nee-chan?" Naruto asked, running over.

Kabuto pulled him back before he could grab her by the shoulder. "Don't touch her," he said firmly.

Kneeling down next to Kabuto, Itachi paused briefly to take in the situation. "She's still wearing a yukata," he said. "That means she must have had her accident this morning, before she would have left to help at the ramen stand. Do you think she's been unconscious the whole time, or just unable to get up?"

"I'm not sure," Kabuto said, absently straightening Naruto's rumpled t-shirt. "This is a little beyond me. We need to get her to the hospital, but…" he shrugged, reaching out but pausing before he could actually touch Ayame.

"Is she going to wake up?" Naruto persisted.

"If I open the hospital, can you operate the equipment?" Itachi asked.

"Some of it, and there are a couple kids who have volunteered—they might be able to help. We can at least read the manuals."

"Good," Itachi said. "Try and get her ready to be moved. I'll have Iruka send over some genin to help."

Kabuto nodded, seeming to regain some of his usual briskness as he bent over Ayame's inert form and carefully began to arrange her limbs. Naruto stood watching until Itachi grabbed his arm and began to pull him away. "Will she be okay?" he asked, and Itachi actually registered the question this time.

"I'm not sure," he said quietly as they headed back to the Academy, now lit by the dimming rays of the setting sun. "There really isn't much we can do—but we'll try."

[A/N: I'm actually starting to like this Kabuto now…argh, I'm ruining my own plans!]


	9. Chapter 9

[A/N: Ha-ha, an update! Take _that_, writer's block!]

VIV:

The next few days seemed to go by in a blur. Once the hospital was broken into, Kabuto moved Ayame into one of the intensive care rooms. The rest of the hospital was empty—there had been only adult patients at the time of the disappearances—so Iruka requisitioned most of the wards to put the children in. Some of the clan children, Hyuuga mostly, wanted to go back to their own compounds, but there weren't enough of the older children to watch the younger.

Itachi also knew that the best way to prevent another accident like Ayame's would be to keep everyone close together. The Ichiraku's neighbors had all been older families with grown children, and after the disappearances there would have been no one to hear her if she had called for help.

Although dinner had to be mostly given up on the first day, the Huan clan was able to raid the grocery stores and transport enough food to the Academy cafeteria—the hospital's cafeteria wasn't large enough—to last at least the next couple weeks. The goal was to use up as much of the perishable food as possible so that canned goods could be saved in case everything else ran out.

Itachi and Iruka took over some of the hospital offices for themselves and their helpers, not that they managed to get much rest. Itachi had barely seen Sasuke for the last two days, an oversight which he knew his brother would be most upset about. Luckily, Sasuke and Naruto had ended up in different rooms, so there had been fewer quarrels than there might have been.

Around the third day, things began to get somewhat routine. The older children in each ward would take care of the younger ones and attempt to do some teaching, for those who were the right age. Meals were taken in stages in order to fit everyone into the Academy cafeteria. The food was pretty boring: eggs for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch and dinner . On the second day, dinner had been curry and rice for a change, made with supplies from the Huang diner. There were rumors of pudding cups, but when Itachi enquired of the Huans they said that they hadn't been able to gather enough for everyone yet.

The evening of the fourth day, Itachi and Iruka were resting in their office, as the teenage volunteers had offered to pack everyone off to bed. The first couple nights had been bedlam, but things had mostly quieted down now besides several pillow fights. While Iruka would have allowed these for the sake of morale, Itachi had pointed out that they couldn't afford to risk destroying and pillows or bedding (a real danger with shinobi pillow fights) so these had to be banned.

Iruka sighed, rubbing his eyes wearily as he looked over a list of stores and warehouses that would have to be searched. Itachi had spent most of the day ascertaining which locations were most likely to have useful items and returned to the hospital with the information.

Setting down the pencil he had been taking notes with, Iruka rested his chin on his hand, obviously struggling to stay awake from the way his eyelids kept starting to droop.

Itachi frowned. While he did the best he could, he did not have the knowledge Iruka did to take care of a whole community like this. It would do what was left of Konoha little good if the young teacher collapsed of exhaustion before the end of the week.

After a couple minutes, Iruka picked up the pencil again and began rummaging around the papers on the desk, finally pulling out a map.

Itachi decided he had better take action. Before Iruka could put pencil to paper again, Itachi moved with characteristic but possibly unnecessary swiftness and pencil and papers out of the other boy's hands.

Iruka jerked in surprise, several other papers flying off the desk as he did so. "Wha—"

"I think you've had quite enough of this for tonight," Itachi said firmly. "There's an armchair right over there: get some sleep."

Itachi's commanding tone, developed from much practice with his ANBU squad, squelched any protest from Iruka, who obediently walked (somewhat shakily due to how tired he was) over to the armchair and curled up in it with a sigh. "Make sure you wake me up if anything happens, Itachi-kun," he said.

"If your presence is required I will wake you," Itachi replied, resolving to ensure that Iruka's presence was not required under any circumstances.

"Great," Iruka mumbled, his eyes already closed again.

Itachi shut the door quietly as he left. He would have liked some sleep as well, but Iruka needed it more than he did. As a reserve chuunin, the substitute teacher had been little prepared for an emergency like this, but he had worked possibly even harder than Itachi had during the day. While Itachi had been off running errands, Iruka had been keeping seven hundred children under control—Itachi could barely manage two.

Wanting to check on how Sasuke was doing, Itachi headed for the stairs. The civilians had been put on the upper floors, and below them the shinobi children. There hadn't been too much fuss over placement as of yet, but that was mostly because everyone was too tired to complain. The Hyuuga and Uchiha had been placed on different floors, so hopefully that would forestall at least some future incidents. The Inuzuka had originally been given a spot on the third floor, but had rejected it and moved into the basement with their dogs. Iruka was a little worried about sanitation but had decided it was all right for the present.

The second floor had been reserved for medical purposes, and Itachi stopped by the room where Kabuto and his three helpers were looking after Ayame. Kabuto looked up as Itachi appeared in the doorway.

"How is she?" Itachi asked. Ayame was still unconscious, and there was an oxygen mask over her face as well as an IV feeding into her left arm. Kabuto held several medical files labeled 'Ichiraku', and two of the volunteers were poring over a thick medical book. The other was fiddling with the dials of the monitor Ayame was hooked up to. Itachi could see the readout of her vital signs on the screen but didn't know what to make of it, except for her chakra levels which were predictably low, since she was a civilian.

"The same as she has been," Kabuto said. "She's completely unresponsive, but I don't know how to run any kind of brain scan, either with chakra or the equipment we have. As long as we're isolated like this, all I can do is keep her stable, and I can't say how long that will last."

"I understand," Itachi said, leaving them to their work as he headed for the upper floors. He paused briefly on the third floor to peek into the ward where the Uchiha children were staying.

By this point all was quiet. Itachi slipped silently into the room, closing the door delicately behind him. Taking care not to bump into any of the beds, he walked along the ward to where he knew Sasuke was sleeping.

The genin had been taking the children out in stages to fetch clothes and the like from their homes, so a small box of possessions was now sitting on the floor at the end of Sasuke's bed. Itachi knew what was in it, having been shown it all the last time he came to check on his brother. It was mostly filled with clothes, with a few books and toys and a belt full of practice weapons. Since there were hundreds of children waiting for their turn Sasuke had been forced to fill his box in a rush, and there were a great many things Itachi knew he would have brought if he had been given time enough to find them.

_Having to fit all your things into only a couple of cubic feel must be quite a change,_ Itachi thought absently, stepping lightly over to the head of the bed.

Sasuke was curled up tightly in his blankets, so that Itachi could barely see more than his face and a few locks of hair. Itachi smiled fondly as he looked down at the sleepy little pout on his brother's face.

"Sweet dreams, Otouto-chan," he murmured, not loudly enough to wake Sasuke. "I'll see if I can't make things better for you soon."

[A/N: Swinging things into a faster pace for a bit, hopefully the plot will get going within a couple chapters. If any of you are waiting for the next chapter of Turning Points, I'm still working on that but I did get a very important one-shot done!]


	10. Chapter 10

[A/N: Still not rushing things too much—I like exploring what would be done in this situation.]

X.

Early the next morning, before the children were all up and clamoring for breakfast, the oldest current inhabitants of Konoha gathered in one of the Academy classrooms for a meeting. It was obvious that things could not go on as they were indefinitely, so something had to be done.

There were about forty people in the classroom altogether; of course all the fifteen-, sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds could not be present, as some of them had to remain in the hospital to ensure everything stayed under control there. The Huans were also working on preparing food for the day with the help of several volunteers, but Bai Feng was present in order to provide information on that situation.

Itachi wasn't in the age group that had been invited, but Iruka insisted that he come anyway and he probably would have in any case. The substitute teacher was very nervous that he wouldn't be able to convince his peers that he should be left in charge.

The seating was haphazard, with everyone jamming themselves in as best they could behind the slightly too-small desks. Iruka was sitting at the desk that had belonged to the teacher, with Itachi next to him.

"Okay, so I'm sure I don't have to explain _what _happened," Iruka began after everyone had settled down, "and before anyone asks, we're, um, still working on the _why_. Our main problem is what we do with ourselves until then. We have some reports on the food and living situations, but before that, does anyone have any questions?"

A girl with the flaxen blond hair and vivid blue eyes typical of the Yamanaka clan raised her hand first. "Do we know if there are any adults left outside of the city?"

"We don't know for sure yet, but I doubt it," Iruka replied. "We haven't received any supply shipments or mail since the beginning of all this last week. Yesterday, two children whose parents were falconers sent some messages off to deployed Konoha shinobi, but it's much too soon to expect a reply. Anyone else?"

The next questioner was a Hyuuga boy. "I don't see why we can't be permitted to return to our clan compound," he said. "Nor," he continued, staring coldly at Itachi, "can I think of any good reason why an Uchiha _child_ should be in charge."

Iruka blinked, clearly at a loss for how to respond. Itachi quickly cut in. "As for your second issue," he said calmly, "if you know of any ninja still left in the city who happens to be above me in rank, feel free to replace me. Furthermore, I'm not in charge—Iruka-sensei is. About the living situations—" he could see Hana waving at him from the front row "—I'll let Inuzuka Hana answer that, considering she helped put them together."

Hana stood with an indignant huff. "Alright, _clearly_ you haven't given much thought to the fact that, not only are there twenty-two Hyuuga kids under the age of two and forty-nine total under the age of ten, there are only seventeen of you older than that. We took the liberty of assuming you'd appreciate the help with your bratlings, but if you want to try to keep control of a mob like that by yourselves…"

The Hyuuga boy started to say something, then shut his mouth and sat down. Iruka breathed a sigh of relief.

After that, Bai Feng gave her report on the state of food in Konoha. It was nothing that Itachi hadn't already guessed; there was a finite amount of food in Konoha, and while it could be rationed to last a long while, making it keep long enough to get agricultural operations going well enough to feed everyone did not seem likely. The estimate, barring a trip to gather more imperishables from a shipping center, was eight months to a year at the most. She also mentioned that the infant formula and baby food was likely to run out much sooner than that.

Someone else raised their hand once Bai Feng had finished talking and Iruka had asked for questions. Itachi couldn't see the back row well enough to realize that it was Kabuto until he stood. One of his hospital volunteers was sitting next to him, but the other two were probably back taking care of Ichiraku Ayame.

"Not only are our food supplies limited, but our medical supplies as well," he said. "Many of the younger children are not inoculated, and if, say, a major illness were to break out, there wouldn't be enough drugs left to treat more than a few dozen. Also, medicines expire as well and I doubt much of our stock will still be good after a couple months. We have to do something to improve the situation or we'll have a disaster area on our hands, however nicely we've arranged things now."

"You have a good point," Iruka said, sounding grave. "But do you have any suggestions?"

"I propose an expedition," Kabuto replied. "There may not be any adults left near Konoha, but, whatever happened, it couldn't have spread over the whole continent. We might be able to find some adults in Wind Country, or the islands. I would volunteer to go—even if we don't find anyone, I have more medical knowledge than anyone here and might be able to find a clue to what happened."

"What about Ichiraku Ayame?" Itachi asked. "What would become of her in your absence?"

"She's…stable," Kabuto answered. "Even if I were to stay there's nothing more I can do."

Iruka frowned, looking to Itachi. "Now what?" he whispered.

"You could take a vote," Itachi suggested quietly.

"Oh! Right…" Iruka laughed nervously before addressing the crowd again. "Okay everyone, all those in favor of a reconnaissance expedition, raise your hands!"

Hana took a quick count. "Thirty-one," she said.

"And against?" Iruka continued, even though Itachi knew he must have realized the outcome was assured. There were only fourteen hands raised. "Right, then it's settled! Kabuto will set out to see if there are any adults somewhere else on the continent."

"You can't expect him to go all by himself," Bai Feng pointed out after Iruka had announced the results of the voting.

"That's…true," Iruka replied, "but—"

Itachi took a deep breath. "I will go as well."

[A/N: The plot, it is advancing!]


	11. Chapter 11

XI.

Iruka stared at him in shock. "But—you—Itachi-kun!" he protested. "You can't just leave!"

Itachi knew Iruka couldn't afford to undermine his authority by making a scene, so he quickly began to explain himself. "Things are running comparatively well by now," he pointed out. "Hana and Bai Feng are very capable, and all the volunteers know what they're supposed to be doing—honestly, it won't make much difference if I go. Besides," he added more quietly, "It does seem like my being here is somewhat of a point of contention."

"Well, there is that…" Iruka conceded. "It's decided then!" he continued, addressing the crowd. "Yakushi Kabuto and Uchiha Itachi will go to try and find out what happened and if there are any adults left. Does anyone else have anything to add? No? Then the meeting is adjourned."

…

After the meeting, Itachi decided that the first thing he should do was explain things to Sasuke—it would probably be best if his little brother heard it from him first, rather than someone else.

Sasuke was, as Itachi had expected, not very pleased. "You can't go, Aniki!" he shouted. "Mama and Papa are already gone and—and I—there won't be anyone _left!_"

"But I thought you wanted me to find our parents," Itachi pointed out.

"I didn't mean I wanted you go away," Sasuke retorted, crossing his arms sulkily.

"Sasuke—"

"Leave me alone!" Sasuke snapped, pushing past Itachi and running out the door of the Uchiha ward.

Itachi ran after him, but wasn't sure whether he should try to catch him or not—his lack of knowledge on how to handle children tripping him up again—so he hesitated long enough for Sasuke to make it all the way out of the hospital. Sighing, Itachi sat down on the front steps of the building. Sasuke would be all right by himself, and Itachi really did have to go, but he felt awful about leaving things like this.

"That didn't go too well, did it?" someone remarked from behind him.

Itachi groaned inwardly, before replying through gritted teeth. "No, Kabuto, it didn't. Do you happen to have any suggestions as to how I could have gone about it better?"

"Not really," Kabuto replied, not seeming to have noticed Itachi's harsh tone. "But we don't have to leave until tomorrow; I'm sure he'll come around by then."

Kabuto did seem to have a fair amount of experience with children, so maybe he was right. But because this was Kabuto, Itachi wasn't about to admit that, so he made a noncommittal noise before standing. "I'm going to pack for the trip," he said. "If Iruka needs me, tell him I'll be in the Uchiha compound."

Not waiting to hear whether Kabuto had anything more to say, Itachi bounded up to a nearby streetlamp before roof-hopping across the city.

…

It was harder than usual deciding what to pack in this situation—Itachi wasn't sure what he could count on to be available once he left the city. For all he knew, the next several towns might be completely looted or even burned down in an accidental fire. Nor was there a very definite timescale on how long they would be gone. If he and Kabuto were going all the way across the continent, they probably wouldn't return to Konoha for a couple of months or more.

There would probably be enough food for the taking that they wouldn't need to pack more than a week's supply or so, but Itachi made sure to pack a generous supply of water purification tablets. He decided not to take much money; there wasn't much point to it in this situation. He did, however, raid his uncle Kaito's pocket-knife collection for more than a dozen serviceable-looking specimens. If he needed to barter, the handy tools would be quite valuable. He tried to take the more easily replaceable ones, but that was difficult since he had never paid much attention when Kaito showed off the collection.

Packing clothes was easier, as Itachi's tastes were very simple and he would probably be wearing his ANBU uniform most of the time anyway. He did take a heavy coat and a rain poncho—they might come in handy and the infrastructure to buy them might not be available later.

After his backpack was full of clothes and gear (with some room left for the amount of food he estimated he would need to carry) Itachi rummaged around in his desk until he found last year's birthday present from his mother. His family and friends knew very well that Itachi liked practical things, so Mikoto had given him a pair of woven cuffs that could be unraveled to get several hundred feet of nigh-unbreakable cord. He had never had to use them, so they were still intact, and they would be much better than hauling a heavy rope around. They fit snugly when he put them on, and he could put his armguards over them, if necessary.

Later, he would have to discuss with Kabuto what food they would be taking, but for now Itachi decided he would head back towards the hospital and Academy and see if Sasuke felt more like talking to him yet. Tracing Sasuke's chakra was very easy and Itachi quickly located him in the Academy playground. He decided to judge his brother's mood before revealing himself, settling down on an overlooking roof to watch.

Sasuke was sitting forlornly on one of the swings, occasionally scuffing at the ground with the toe of his shoe but not making any real effort to get off the ground. Itachi was about to jump down and go to him when he noticed Naruto perched in a branch several feet above his brother. Sasuke hadn't noticed Naruto's presence yet, so Itachi decided to wait a little while and see what would happen. However, he did make sure he was ready to move at a moment's notice, considering Naruto's propensity for hurling himself off high places.

After another ten or fifteen seconds (Naruto was not a terribly patient child) Naruto slipped down to a nearer branch, dangling by his knees so that he and Sasuke were almost eye-to-eye. Sasuke was obviously taken by surprise, and nearly fell off the swing before recovering himself and sticking his tongue out at Naruto. Naruto reciprocated.

Itachi wasn't close enough to hear the conversation, and he didn't want to eavesdrop right now. What conversation there was didn't last long, anyway, and soon both boys were engaged in hurling leaves and dirt clods at each other. From the laughter Itachi could hear, it didn't seem like there was much animosity involved, so he didn't intervene.

It was ten minutes or more before Sasuke and Naruto tired of their game and sat down against opposite sides of the tree where they had started out. Itachi decided now would be as good a time as any to confront Sasuke again and jumped down from his roof.

Sasuke couldn't see him from this angle, but Naruto could and quickly stood up. "Hey, what are you—"

"I think it's about time you went back inside, Naruto," Itachi cut in firmly before the boy could finish his sentence.

Naruto looked doubtful, but hurried off when Itachi made an insistent shooing motion. There still hadn't been any movement or sound from the other side of the tree, and Itachi approached cautiously to look around the trunk. "Hello, Sasuke."


	12. Chapter 12

[A/N: Sorry to not update anything for so long, but I've been having trouble at school. Taking Microeconomics and Statistics in the same semester: Not a Good Idea.]

XII.

Sasuke didn't look up. "Go _away,_" he said sulkily.

Itachi sighed and crouched down next to him. "You really can't make up your mind about this, can you?" he pointed out gently.

Sasuke turned to glare at him. It wasn't the reaction Itachi would have liked, but it was at least some sort of reaction, so they were making progress. "Sasuke," he tried again.

"You _said_ I could stay with you!" Sasuke suddenly burst out. "You _lied!_"

Was that what this was all about? Itachi could see where Sasuke was coming from, but he wasn't sure how he was supposed to fix this. "I'm not leaving just to spite you," he tried to explain. "Someone has to try to find out what happened, and I'm the most qualified ninja in the village right now."

"But—" Sasuke turned to look at him and Itachi could see tears in his eyes "—but what if there's really something out there? What if you don't come back?"

So that was the problem. "I promise I'll come back, no matter what happens," Itachi said sincerely. "I won't abandon you, I swear."

Sasuke sniffled, blinking away tears, but finally nodded. "Okay."

"So, can I go?"

"S-sure," Sasuke replied with a slight smile. "You'll find Mama and Papa, right?"

"I'll do my best," Itachi said. "It's going to be lunchtime soon. Let's go back to the hospital so you won't miss your turn, okay?"

Sasuke was getting a little too big to pick up easily now, but Itachi did it anyway, not minding that his shirt was getting damp from the remnants of Sasuke's tears.

…

By that night, both Itachi and Kabuto were fully packed and going over a map with Iruka and Hana to decide where their destination would be.

"First off, we need to get all the survivors of towns nearby over here," Iruka said.

"But there's going to be—" Hana began, but Iruka interrupted.

"I know it will be a lot, but we can't just leave them there," he said firmly. "There are only four or five little towns within fifty miles; that's about as far as we can expect civilian children to walk."

Itachi looked at the points Iruka had marked. "That shouldn't take long," he said, quickly calculating the most efficient route. "After that we need to find out how far this phenomenon extends. Wave Country is the closest independent government—that way we will know whether the disappearances were isolated in Fire Country or not—and then we can swing through Wind Country, if need be, and thus circumnavigate the continent. Of course, in the best-case scenario we wouldn't have to go that far, but I doubt we're looking at the best case here."

Kabuto looked over the route Itachi was tracing and nodded in approval. "Looks good enough to me. If possible we should attempt to get some sort of government started again in any large cities; that way we might be able to set up some trade later."

"Our first priority is discovery," Itachi reminded him, "but we can do that on the way back, if it's still necessary."

"I suppose," Kabuto conceded.

"If that's settled then you should get some rest," Hana said firmly. "You'll be leaving early tomorrow morning and these are probably the best accommodations you'll have until you get back."

Sasuke was sitting outside the office when they left, and from the look of it he had been there for quite a while. Itachi crouched down to say something to him before realizing that his little brother was fast asleep. He quickly motioned to the others to be quiet before carefully picking Sasuke up, hoping he wouldn't wake. "I'm going to take him back to bed," Itachi whispered. "I'll see you in the morning, Iruka-sensei, Kabuto-san, Hana-san." Nodding to each of them, he headed as smoothly as possible down the hallway.

Itachi did his best not to wake Sasuke on his way back to the Uchiha ward, but was unable to eliminate a few slight jolts when he reached the stairs. Stirring in his arms, Sasuke raised his head a little and looked up at Itachi sleepily. "Nii-san…" he mumbled drowsily.

"You're supposed to be in bed," Itachi reminded him, trying not to sound like he was scolding.

"I wanted to be sure I could see you before you left," Sasuke explained.

Itachi smiled fondly. "Otouto, you didn't think I would leave without saying goodbye, did you?"

"Well…I just wanted to make _sure_," Sasuke repeated, reaching up to trace the lines of Itachi's forehead protector.

"You've made sure," Itachi promised him as they reached the door of the Uchiha ward. "Now, you need to get to bed," he said firmly, opening the door and setting Sasuke down inside. "I'll tuck you in, okay?" Itachi whispered as they walked down the row of little white beds to where Sasuke's was.

"Can you tell me a story, Aniki?" Sasuke asked as Itachi settled the white blanket, exactly the same as all the others in the room, around him.

Itachi hesitated. Of course he wanted to do anything that would make Sasuke happy, but it was very late and he couldn't risk waking the other children. "Not tonight, Otouto-chan, I'm sorry. But I'll have lots of stories to tell you when I return. Now go to sleep," he whispered, lightly tapping Sasuke's forehead with two fingers.

Sasuke pouted a little but obligingly closed his eyes—he was asleep even before Itachi reached the door of the ward.

…

The next morning was bright and clear, although not very warm as it was now further into autumn. Itachi hoped the city would fare all right once winter set in; even if he and Kabuto discovered something favorable they still probably not reach Konoha again until months had passed. The winter in this part of the continent was rarely severe, but it did get cold enough that if there was any trouble with keeping the power and heating running things could get very difficult, especially with only children who would be more susceptible to the elements.

After putting Sasuke to bed, Itachi had crashed in an empty room on the same floor, and now he went down to Iruka's office to see how things were going. It was early enough that all the children were still contained ,whether or not they were awake, and breakfast wasn't for another couple of hours. Hana had said that it wouldn't be a good idea to make too much fuss over their departure, and Iruka had agreed. Itachi didn't like the idea of leaving Sasuke without saying anything, but it would prevent a teary scene that could hurt the morale of the other children.

Kabuto was already in the office when Itachi got there. "How did thing go with Sasuke?" he asked.

Itachi shrugged, not wanting to tell Kabuto any more of his private affairs than was necessary. "As well as could be expected. Shall we go?"

…

[A/N: I'm probably going to introduce Iruka's POV soon so we can keep up on events in Konoha while Itachi and Kabuto are on the road.]


	13. Chapter 13

[Sorry I haven't been posting much lately! This is a little short but it's better than nothing, I guess...]

XIII.

Iruka walked to the gate with Itachi and Kabuto, and watched from one of the guardposts on the wall after they left. The two boys quickly disappeared from sight among the trees, but Iruka could tell from their chakra the direction they were taking. Yubin was only about twenty-five miles away, and a pair of shinobi should be able to reach it easily by afternoon—if nothing unforeseen happened. Practically everything since the disappearances had been unforeseen, and Iruka hoped Itachi and Kabuto would be able to adjust in the higher-stakes environment outside the city.

Of course, considering that Itachi was going, there really shouldn't be much to worry about. The Uchiha heir was one of the most powerful ninja of his generation and had a fearsome reputation. However, despite the fact that he was already an ANBU agent, Itachi was younger than Iruka by several years and the substitute teacher couldn't help being concerned.

"When do you think they'll be back?" one of the two girls occupying the guardhouse asked. She didn't yet have a forehead protector, as she was still in the Academy, but so far had done a genin-worthy job. Iruka supposed this duty should count as extra credit in her record, but wasn't sure whether that was going to matter anytime soon.

"Within a few months," Iruka replied. _If nothing goes wrong,_ he added mentally.

…

There was little of note on the road to Yubin, save the fact that (as Itachi had expected) the small Konoha outposts located nearby were deserted. Like what had happened in the city, the occupants seemed to have vanished from their beds with no trace left.

Animal activity in the forest between Konoha and Yubin seemed normal, although the birds and squirrels were perhaps a little bolder due to there being no people on the road for more than a week. "Do any of the animals appear diseased to you?" he asked Kabuto when they stopped for lunch. Bai Feng had made sandwiches for them, with very generous portions of lunchmeat since it would spoil soon anyway.

Kabuto shook his head. "Not just from looking, although there are tests we could run to be more certain. I don't think there's anything strange going on with them, though."

Itachi had assumed he would get this answer but it never hurt to check. With only a short distance left to Yubin, he and Kabuto hurried their pace once they finished eating.

As they neared the small town, Itachi frowned at the scent on the wind.

"That's…" Kabuto began a few moments later, letting the statement trail off worriedly.

"Smoke, yes," Itachi finished for him. "Hurry."

…

Itachi had been bracing himself to see the town as a complete disaster area as they approached, but when they got there it quickly became clear that things were not as dire as they could have been. Most of the damage was limited to several warehouses that had burned to the ground—thus, unfortunately, ruining any chance of Konoha's getting supplies from there. What was a greater cause for concern was the fact that at least one apartment building Itachi could see had been reduced to a smoking shell.

The area around the fire zone was eerily quiet as Itachi and Kabuto picked their way through it. Clearly all the inhabitants were elsewhere in the town. The question was whether they had left before, during or after the fire.

"Good thing we made sure everyone was supervised back in Konoha, isn't it," Kabuto remarked as Itachi paused to examine the remains of the apartment building.

The ramifications of a fire occurring in Konoha before everyone had been collected in the hospital had not been lost on Itachi, and he was very thankful that nothing disastrous like this had happened in the several hours after the disappearances had occurred and before Sasuke had awoken him. "Let's go find where everyone went," Itachi said, heading for the nearest uncharred building and bounding up to the roof. Kabuto followed more slowly.

The only movement in the town was the occasional fluttering of abandoned laundry and a few cats wandering through the streets. Looking past the town limits to the north, Itachi could see the spire of a temple. "Let's look there," he said, pointing the location out to Kabuto. "The children may have been instructed to go to the shrine in case of an emergency."

"Right, let's go," Kabuto replied quickly, opening his shoulder bag to take stock of his medical supplies. "I don't know what I've got for burns, but—"

Itachi held up a sound for silence, cutting the older boy off. Indicating one of the shops below, about a half-block away, he made the Konoha shinobi hand-signals for _I heard something_ and _stealthy approach_. Kabuto looked blankly back at him for a second, and Itachi wondered if he had used the slightly different ANBU signals by mistake until Kabuto nodded in understanding.

Working their way around the rooftops, Itachi and Kabuto ended up atop the shop in question about a minute later. Kabuto was moving stealthily enough for a genin medical student, to Itachi's approval. After listening to the sounds coming from inside, Itachi decided that whoever it was, they were moving much too loudly to be a ninja, and therefore were unlikely to be a threat. "Let's see who's inside," Itachi said.

The two shinobi dropped down from the roof and examined the front of the store. Displays set up in the front windows prevented Itachi from seeing anything of the inside, although all of the goods that had been displayed were gone, leaving only the backgrounds. From the sign, it was a children's clothing store, making the lack of stock understandable.

Pushing the door open, Itachi entered slowly, Kabuto following. "Hello?" he called, not wanting to frighten anyone by sneaking up on them. "We're shinobi of Konoha, we're here to help."

There was brief silence in the back of the store, then quickly approaching footsteps. A few moments later, a girl of about fourteen peeked cautiously out from behind one of the shelves. Apparently satisfied by Itachi and Kabuto's appearances, she stepped all the way out. "Um, hello, I guess," she said with a nervous little wave. "Didn't you bring any grownups?" she said after a few more seconds of scrutiny. "Etsuko-san said there would be grownups in Konoha."

Itachi shrugged apologetically, not sure how to reply. "I'm afraid not," he said finally.


	14. Chapter 14

[A/N: There isn't much shown in the Naruto manga of that universe's religious set-up, so I'm kind of making this up based on what I know of Japanese religion.]

XIV.

The girl (who stated that her name was Aina) gave them a thorough but rather haphazard rundown of events in Yubin as Itachi and Kabuto helped her carry several boxes of clothing to her destination. As Itachi had predicted, the children left behind in Yubin were currently staying at the temple complex. Etsuko was apparently one of two priestesses young enough to also remain.

As far as Itachi could tell from Aina's account, the disappearances had occurred in Yubin at the same time as in Konoha, or at least were discovered on the same morning. For the first several days, the children had gravitated into many small groups, mostly based on their parents' professions and where they lived in the town.

The warehouse district fire had occurred two days before Itachi and Kabuto left Konoha. According to Aina, nobody knew what had caused it, but equipment left running when the adults disappeared had been speculated as a cause. There was also the possibility that someone had been playing with matches and done something stupid, but no one had been staying near the place where the fire started. After the fire, which had driven many children out of the destroyed apartment building (although luckily with no fatalities) the children abandoned their enclaves and migrated to the temple, where they had remained since then.

"And that's about all," Aina finished as they arrived at the gate of the temple complex. "Etsuko-san and Yuzuki-san can tell you anything else—they're in charge. Those boxes go in the shed over here, I'll show you…"

Kabuto volunteered to take Itachi's boxes the rest of the way, leaving Itachi free to explore the compound. It was neater than he had expected, but considering the much smaller population of Yubin there wouldn't be nearly as many children as in Konoha. That would make the situation much easier to control.

Most of the area in front of the temple proper was now covered with an array of tents of all shapes, sizes and conditions. Several girls in their later teens were clustered off to the side around a large pot hung over a cooking fire. One of them was wearing the white robe and red hakama Itachi recognized as belonging to a priestess.

Dodging a gaggle of little ones playing a vigorous game of tag, Itachi made his way over to the cooking girls. "Excuse me," he said.

All of the girls started, and one or two of them gave a little shriek of surprise. "Sorry," Itachi said quickly, realizing too late that these civilians would not be used to shinobi stealth or able to sense him coming through his chakra signature. "Are you Etsuko?" he asked the priestess. Aina's comment that Etsuko had been expecting adults from Konoha had made him wonder if someone here had made some discovery.

The girl shook her head. "My name is Yuzuki," she said. "Did you come from Konoha?"

"Yes," Itachi said, "We're investigating the disappearances." Yuzuki looked curious at his use of 'we' so Itachi elaborated. "There's a medic with me, but he's helping Aina put away boxes at the moment. Does anyone here need medical attention?"

"Etsuko and I know enough of medicine to help any of the children who are sick," Yuzuki replied, "but one boy fell from a tree and broke his arm and a few of them were burned trying to save things from the fire. He was helping Aina, you said? I think I should be able to find him."

Yuzuki took off across the grounds, leaving Itachi still trying to find Etsuko. Thankfully, one of the other girls helping to prepare the food also realized this problem. "You were looking for Etsuko-san, right?" she asked. "She's in the temple building—that's where she's been most of the time, trying to convince the gods to give us our parents back."

Itachi wasn't sure what good that would do, but figured he might as well talk to Etsuko anyway. Mounting the steps of the temple, he opened the door of the main room.

The temple's main sanctuary was simple but elegant, and built oriented along the directions of the compass. There was a heavy scent of incense wafting from the north alcove, and Itachi headed in that direction, his footsteps only slightly audible on the tatami mats.

There was an elaborately painted screen in front of the alcove and Itachi stepped around it slowly, not wishing to disturb the priestess despite his skepticism. "Pardon my intrusion," he said quietly as the girl did not seem to notice him right away.

The girl's shoulders stiffened in surprise at Itachi's words, but she did not lose her composure as she stood with a final bow towards the alcove. "I suspected someone would come," she said finally as she turned to face him. She had been smiling in relief, but her smile slowly faded—probably as she realized that Itachi was much younger than she had been expecting. "It was not merely our village that fell under the punishment of the gods, I see."

"Whatever caused this, it definitely seems widespread," Itachi replied, choosing not to address her other implication. "Can you tell me what happened here, as far as you know? It would be very helpful to our investigation."

Etsuko's account, while somewhat more detailed, was approximately the same as Itachi had heard from Aina earlier, although with considerably more religious commentary. Itachi didn't learn anything of much import, although with Etsuko's information he was able to narrow down the time of the disappearances to a window between midnight and three in the morning, just over two weeks ago. If the disappearances had been universally simultaneous, this information would be very helpful in their investigation.

…

After Itachi had gathered as much information as possible from the priestesses and older children and Kabuto had done all he could to help on the medical front, the two of them departed from the village. Itachi suggested to Etsuko that she consider travelling to Konoha with the children—they would likely be safer there—but she declared that she would remain in Yubin a while longer in order to preside over her temple.

While Itachi respected her resolve and dedication to what she saw as her duty, he couldn't really see what good it would do to continue with the ceremonies if they hadn't done any good so far, but he refrained from saying so.

Etsuko insisted on giving Itachi and Kabuto several protective charms when they left. Itachi put his in his backpack, while Kabuto distributed his through a few inner pockets.

"Where to next?" Kabuto enquired after Yubin was behind them.

"River Country," Itachi said. "It should take us about a week to get to the border, if we make good time, and then another day to make it to a town." River Country was sparsely populated, and most of the settlements near its borders were trade outposts unlikely to contain any children."

"Let's get moving then," Kabuto declared, shifting his pack a little on his shoulders and increasing his pace.

Itachi let him pass, following behind at a more measured speed. He was still unsure that he could trust the medic—Kabuto appeared a little too glad to be out of the village. Of course, he had been very busy the past few weeks in Konoha, so he could just be happy for some respite from constant calls for assistance. However, Itachi couldn't suppress the instinct that told him to be wary.

[A/N: Apologies for the short installment, I wanted to get to a fresh chapter before introducing more plot points.]


End file.
